Meet ARIE

ARIE is the IDEA Institute’s cutting-edge, equity-focused chatbot, developed to support learning, discovery, and academic transformation across the public health spectrum. 

Built in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), ARIE uses a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model to deliver intelligent, trustworthy, and contextual responses based on ASPPH’s curated content. 

UNDERSTANDING ARIE IN ACTION 

Think of ARIE as a: 

• Teaching Assistant – helping students grasp public health foundations and sharpen critical thinking 

• Librarian – curating and serving up relevant  Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), resources that are aligned with the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) competencies, and other practice-based resources 

• Prompt Tutor – teaching users how to engage with AI meaningfully and ethically 

• Research Partner – helping educators discover insights while contributing to longitudinal research on AI and education 

Whether you’re exploring pedagogy, designing curriculum, or preparing for CEPH accreditation, ARIE offers timely, reliable support. 

WHY ARIE MATTERS 

ARIE is more than a chatbot. It represents ASPPH’s commitment to the ethical and responsible use of technology in academic public health. The chatbot is designed with care to: 

• Respect privacy and protect user data 

• Deliver evidence-based content through an equity lens 

• Support faculty innovation without replacing human teaching 

• Empower students to explore, critique, and expand their knowledge 

BUILT FOR FLEXIBILITY 

To ensure accessibility and scalability, ASPPH will offer two implementation pathways: 

1. Templatized Playbook – for AI-capable institutions to deploy in their own AWS environments 

2. Fully Managed Service – operated by ASPPH for members with limited internal capacity 

This dual model ensures that ARIE is available to a wide range of institutions—regardless of size or infrastructure. 

DRIVING RESEARCH, INFORMING PRACTICE 

Interaction data from ARIE (fully anonymized) will feed into ASPPH’s data lake, supporting research on generative AI’s effectiveness as a teaching and learning tool. 

Return to the IDEA Institute Main Page 

This information helps us refine best practices, improve pedagogy, and strengthen the impact of public health education across the field.